Medical Marijuana News Channel

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Rich
and Kim Muszynski know when their 5-year-old daughter, Abby, is about
to have a grand mal seizure because her pupils enlarge, and she'll
seem to fixate something in the distance that only she can
see.

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

If you buy legal medical cannabis in Los Angeles today, you’re lucky to find a reliable THC reading for most products on the menu. You’re even less likely to see information about levels of cannabinoids such as CBD, CBG, or CBN. Nor would you see much about terpenes, despite their increasing importance to patients and connoisseurs alike.

Monday, November 28, 2016

A characteristic feature of cannabis is that it causes the “munchies,” which begs the question: could cannabis be used to treat anorexia nervosa? Cannabis has been widely studied as a treatment for anorexia (or cachexia) associated with cancer and HIV/AIDS. However, there’s little research on whether it would be an effective treatment to treat the type of anorexia that most people are familiar with: anorexia nervosa.

Sunday, November 27, 2016

The incoming Trump administration is appointing thousands of politicos to fill the jobs left by Democratic Obama officials, and the highest-ranking position of the judiciary branch could be going to a Senator accused of being an anti-pot racist.

Saturday, November 26, 2016

It’s
now been four years since Washington voters legalized cannabis. The
state’s regulated market has been up and running for nearly two and
a half. But despite being ahead of the curve historically, there’s
one area where Washington lags woefully behind other adult-use
states: delivery. Nearly every other—Oregon, Colorado, even some
newcomers like California—have delivery laws on the books. In
Washington, however, whether you’re a patient or a pothead, nobody
can legally deliver to you.

Friday, November 25, 2016

The medical marijuana program in the state of New York is one of the most restrictive programs in the entire country. There are 10 conditions that qualify a patient for medical cannabis in New York and while full strength cannabis is available, it is only available in non-smokable forms like oils, edibles, capsules, tinctures and the like. However, the state has been talking about expanding their program for a while now – and it looks like they’re finally taking action to see these changes through.

A few of our
country’s most notable Founding Fathers ― think George
Washington, Thomas and John Adams ― grew the cannabis
plant, hemp, as a multipurpose crop, while colonists from that time
could pay their taxes with the plant. Betsy Ross sewed her American
flag from hemp.

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Many
marijuana users know how beneficial cannabis use can be for their
mental health. Whether we’re talking in the short-term or over a
long period, marijuana has helped tens of millions of people treat
their anxiety, depression and stress levels. That is why so many
choose to relax after a long day with a joint or edible as opposed to
a glass of wine or a beer.

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

In the lead-up to the presidential election, it was hard to tell where candidate Donald Trump stood on cannabis. Supporters of both Trump and cannabis would tell you one thing, namely that the candidate had said he supported allowing states to do what they want on the issue. Skeptics, meanwhile, would note Trump’s ties to staunch legalization opponents such as Rudy Giuliani, Chris Christie, and Sheldon Adelson. Others simply threw up their hands; Trump had taken so many contradictory positions over the years, they noted, that trying to read the tea leaves wouldn’t get us very far.

Monday, November 21, 2016

The relationship between cannabis and the brain is a meaty subject. Identifying the various ways cannabis affects the brain is complicated, and we’ve only just begun to unravel many of the mysteries. Most perplexingly, there’s a lot of seemingly contradictory evidence out there.

Sunday, November 20, 2016

With President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) for US attorney general, Americans are finally getting a clearer picture of what the federal government’s approach to cannabis might look like under his administration. Ending days of heated speculation, Trump on Tuesday morning officially nominated Sessions for the role, sparking worries among legalization advocates and cannabis industry leaders.

Saturday, November 19, 2016

The returns from last week’s election didn’t just represent a triumph for cannabis legalization advocates. Data from the Nov. 8 vote also revealed a political paradigm shift. This is the year that the issue of legalization broke free from traditional conservative–liberal boundaries.

Friday, November 18, 2016

Washington regulators will require the “Not for Kids” label (left) on all infused edible products. The design on the right was scrapped due to public pushback that cannabis is not poison.

The Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board this week finalized a new warning label to identify cannabis-infused edibles, a step aimed at curbing instances of children accidentally consuming legal cannabis products.

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Arizona
After a long and grueling campaign, Arizona’s bid to legalize adult-use cannabis lost narrowly on Tuesday, with 52.2 percent of voters casting ballots against Proposition 205. Of the nine marijuana measures on the ballot this year, Arizona was the lone one to fail Tuesday night. Arizona’s result isn’t a complete surprise, however, considering that opposition groups Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy and No on Prop. 205 sunk nearly $5 million into campaigning against the measure, airing numerous anti-legalization ads in the weeks leading up to the election. Arizona may have missed its chance to legalize this year, but the fight to end prohibition is far from over.

Monday, November 14, 2016

We wake to a
changed nation. Right now the difference between America on November
7 and November 9, 2016, feels as profound as the soul-wrenching split
between September 10 and September 12, 2001. It’s a rent in the
fabric of time.

Sunday, November 13, 2016

Ian Almerico carries a tray of cannabis clones at Harborside, a medical marijuana dispensary in Oakland, California. On election day, voters in Florida, North Dakota, and Arkansas supported initiatives to legalize medical marijuana. PHOTOGRAPH BY JIM WILSON, NEW YORK TIMES

The president-elect previously has said that regulating cannabis is a state issue—but some of his closest advisers think otherwise.

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

(Photo by Linda Davidson / The Washington Post)Voters
in California and Massachusetts approved recreational marijuana
initiatives Tuesday night, and several other states passed medical
marijuana provisions in what is turning out to be the biggest
electoral victory for marijuana reform since when Colorado
and Washington first approved the drug's recreational use.

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

President
Barack Obama says that the new batch of legal states could force the
American government to finally address marijuana legalization. The
outgoing commander-in-chief made that remark during an interview with
Bill Maher that aired last night on HBO.

Monday, November 7, 2016

In a new
study out of Washington state, researchers looked into the effects of
mixing alcohol and marijuana by surveying 2,400 people who say they
consumed alcohol in the last year. Of those people – surveyed in
2014 and 2015 – 70% say they used only alcohol while 18% say they
used alcohol and marijuana together and 13% said they used both
substances, but separately.

Saturday, November 5, 2016

A new peer-reviewed study has found that age restrictions in legal cannabis states are effectively keeping cannabis out of the hands of children and minors. Newly published data in the current issue of the Journal of Studies of Alcohol and Drugs found that “compliance with laws restricting marijuana sales to individuals age 21 years or older with a valid ID was extremely high and possibly higher than compliance with restrictions on alcohol sales.”

Friday, November 4, 2016

One week before election day, cannabis legalization races are tightening in all nine states with the topic on the ballot. In California and Florida, early exuberance has given way to strong, steady leads, while campaigns in Arizona and Massachusetts could win or lose by the slightest margins.

Thursday, November 3, 2016

According to Jake Browne, America’s budtender and head strain reviewer at Denver Post’s The Cannabist, most consumers are not looking for strains to get them higher than Snoop Dogg and Willie Nelson trolling KFC at 3:00 a.m. on a weekend bender in Amsterdam.

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

In
Delgadillo’s home, everyone does their part to take care of Bruno.
Here, her stepfather Mario Vallecillo plays with Bruno before helping
to get him in the car for therapy in Miami, FL on Friday, October 28,
2016.

For Jacel
Delgadillo of Miami, Florida, having access to medical cannabis meant
having access to her son. Delgadillo’s 5-year-old son, Bruno ,
was born with a rare, incurable, and debilitating genetic form of
epilepsy called Dravet syndrome, or Severe Myoclonic Epilepsy of
Infancy (SMEI). When the condition was at its worst, Bruno endured up
to 300 seizures a day. In 2013, traveled to Colorado to
seek information about treating Dravet syndrome with cannabis oil.
While there she met Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who was in Colorado filming his
CNN documentary Weed 2. Bruno began using medical cannabis oil to
mitigate his seizures. With the oil, Bruno averaged one to two
seizures per week.

Delgadillo
was eventually able to register Bruno in a Phase 3 drug trial that
allows him to take a form of cannabidiol (CBD) being developed by GW
Pharma specifically to treat children and young adults with Dravet
syndrome. He’s currently receiving treatment as part of that trial.

But
Delgadillo tells Leafly it wasn’t until when she
traveled to California and added THC to the mix, that Bruno’s
seizures plummeted. “I don’t want to give the CBD credit for his
decrease in seizures,” she says “CBD helps cognitively as a
neuroprotectant, but I live and beg for THC. It’s what’s lowered
the 300 seizures a day and what works best as a rescue drug instead
of using benzodiazepine.”

With the help
of cannabis, Bruno has gone from being a vegetative and
non-responsive child to an active, curious and aware 5 old.
“It’s like magic now,” Delgadillo says about how attentive
Bruno has become. “I honestly thought before that he didn’t know
I was his mom. I feel like he knows now.”

Delgadillo
has been an outspoken champion of medical marijuana legalization and
a co-founder of the group Cannamoms, which supports and advocates for
chronically ill children whose conditions may be helped by medical
cannabis. Eleven days before Florida votes on Amendment 2, a
statewide measure to legalize medical marijuana, photojournalist
Scott McIntyre spent a day with and Bruno, documenting
their joys and struggles.

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

The District of Columbia Council will vote Tuesday morning on an omnibus medical marijuana proposal that would bring changes to the fledging and often-criticized MMJ program in the nation’s capital. The Medical Marijuana Reciprocity Amendment Act of 2015, introduced last year by Councilmember Yvette Alexander, would allow patients to finally patronize more than one dispensary in the District. The Act would also eliminate the cap on the number of plants cultivators can grow.